Naidu meets KCR to invite him for new capital ceremony

IANS/HyderabadSetting aside the bitterness in their relations, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu yesterday met his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao to invite him and his family members for the foundation stone laying ceremony of the new state capital.Naidu, who flew in from Tirupati, drove to KCR’s official residence and handed over the invitation for the ceremony on October 22 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for Amaravati.This was Naidu’s first visit to the Telangana chief minister’s home after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. As his convoy entered the high-security residence, KCR came out to welcome Naidu with a bouquet.Naidu also presented a shawl and bouquet to KCR. While Naidu was accompanied by his Telugu Desam Party’s Telangana unit president L Ramna and another party leader E Dayakar Rao, KCR had with him his son and minister K Tarakarama Rao, Deputy Chief Minister Mahmood Ali and another minister Jagdish Reddy.During nearly an hour-long meeting Naidu explained to his Telangana counterpart details of the foundation laying ceremony and his plans for development of Amaravati. They also discussed various issues including interlinking of rivers.This was the first meeting between the two chief ministers in eight months. They had met earlier at the initiative of the two states’ joint Governor E S L Narasimhan.The two leaders were engaged in a bitter war of words after a legislator of TDP was caught red-handed in May while trying to bribe a nominated legislator of Telangana to make him vote for the party candidate in Telangana legislative council elections.